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Fundraising for travelling and volunteering

Bangkok to Brighton by tuk tuk: Famous in Russia

Tuesday 25th July 2006: Yekaterinburg, Russia
Ants writes...

"The next morning I awoke early and left Jo snoring in bed to go and investigate the local market. We'd been so paralysingly cold in the last few days I wanted to find us some warm clothes so we wouldn't have to drive in our sleeping bags.

Two hours later I returned not with any warm clothes, but with a baby hedgehog, called Henry. I'd found Henry in the market, being sold by two mischievious little boys who'd caught the unfortunate beast the day before. Henry looked very unhappy in his little box, being prodded by passers by, so the only solution was to rescue him and think about what to do with him later. He was so sweet, with black eyes and a long twitchy nose, it was tempting to secrete him in TT, give him some goggles and bring him back to England with us. But of course this wasn't possible and two hours later we released him in a silver birch copse in the middle of some farmland, where he scuttled off into the undergrowth without even a wave goodbye.

Fixing a tuk tuk

Our destination that day was Yekaterinburg, about 400 km north west of Troitsk. The roads were good and we banked on being there in time for supper. But at 3pm, the heavens opened. Anuwat warned us to be careful in the rain and that Ting Tong's spark plugs wouldn't be happy if they got wet, but we'd always been alright before and we carried on driving through the rain at a sedate 40 km/h. Anuwat's wise words soon became reality and TT began to splutter in an unseemly manner. It wasn't until 11pm that we finally made it to Yekaterinburg, having crawled along in the rain at 40 km/h for the last 150km with TT choking and backfiring.

We've only been in Yekaterinburg for 36 hours and once again Jo and I have been overwhelmed by the kindess of strangers. Whilst fruitlessly searching for our hotel late on Tuesday night we met Ivan, a local radio presenter who speaks very good English. Without him we would never have found the 'Gostiniza Academia Geologia', tucked away on a dark side street behind Prospekta Lenina. Nor would we have found a safe place to park our three-wheeled friend. Ivan, a philosophical, highly intelligent 31 year old, was fascinated with our trip and went home and posted all about it on a website read by people here. Amongst those who read the sight were two 21 year old boys, Oleg and Vadim, who, with nothing else better to do, decided to go and search for the 'tuk tuk girls'. So here we were, in a random little internet cafe yesterday evening, when two (very handsome indeed) boys came over and said 'Are you the two driving the pink car to England?'. By total chance they had come to this cafe to use the internet and track us down, and here we were. Extraordinary. Yekatinburg is a big city with 1.4 million inhabitants and they had stumbled opon us by total chance. Even funnier was when they showed us the website Ivan had posted on, with a long thread all about the funny pink car that had been spotted last night coming into the city. Oleg and Vadim knew exactly where we had been, where we had got lost, where we had parked to ask directions... just from the replies to Ivan's posting.

Fixing a tuk tuk

This morning Jo has gone off to get TT seen with Ivan, Oleg and Randy, by a mechanic found by Ivan through his posting, and I've gone off to take our DV camera to the Sony service centre and do internet chores. The little bugger (excuse my language) has an audio problem which might not be fixable. I don't even want to think about it and I begged to engineer at the centre to to his very best to sort it out.

This afternoon we're going to check out some of the city and go and see the Bloodhound Gang with Oleg and Vadim tonight. I have no idea who they are, but Jo and the boys seem very excited and assure me they are some hot American group. Jo described them as the music the US troops in Iraq like to drive their tanks around to - sounds great..."

Love Ants and Jo x

Click here >> to follow the journey from the beginning
Click here >> for Ants' and Jo's update from Vientiane, Laos
Click here >> for Ants' and Jo's update from Vang Vieng, Laos
Click here >> to Ants' and Jo's update from Luang Prabang, Laos
Click here >> for Ants' and Jo's update on arriving in China
Click here >> for Ants' and Jo's update on troubles in China
Click here >> for Ants' and Jo's update on the Stone Forest, China
Click here >> for Ants' and Jo's update on China Under Construction
Click here >> for Ant's and Jo's update; dirty tukkers in China
Click here >> for Ants' and Jo's update on Western China
Click here >> for Ants' and Jo's update on the Silk Road
Click here >> for Ants' and Jo's update on the Great Wall of China
Click here >> for Ants' and Jo's update on sand tobogganning in the desert
Click here >> for Ants' and Jo's update from Turpan, China
Click here >> for Ants' and Jo's final update from China
Click here >> for Ants' and Jo's first update from Kazakhstan
Click here >> for Ants' and Jo's update from Almaty, Kazakhstan
Click here >> for Ants' and Jo's first update Lake Balkash, Kazakhstan
Click here >> for Ants' and Jo's update on their impressions of Kazakhstan
Click here >> for Ants' and Jo's first update on Russia
Click here >> for Ants' and Jo's thoughts on Russia

Why are Ants and Jo undertaking this crazy trip?

The girls are completely the 12,000 mile journey from Bangkok to Brighton in an attempt to raise £50,000 for the mental health charity Mind. Here at gapyear.com, we fully support their efforts and wish them the best of luck in their challenge. We'd also ask that anyone who has a spare few pennies sponsors Ants and Jo, as it really is a fantastic cause.

Click here >> for the full story

More about Mind
Mind

Mental health problems can affect anyone, rich or poor, young or old, shattering the lives of those affected and the lives of the people close to them. One in four of us will experience a mental health problem at some point in our lives. Each year more than 250,000 people are admitted to psychiatric hospitals and over 4,000 people take their own lives. Mind is the leading mental health charity in England and Wales working to create a better life for everyone with experience of mental distress.

Further info

Click here >> for an interview with Ants and Jo
Click here >> to sponsor them now - every penny counts...
Click here >> for Ants and Jo's website
Click here >> to find out more about Mind
Click here >> for more fundraising information

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